Build Conway's Game of Life with GitHub Copilot Free
This is a demo video showing GitHub Copilot in an end-to-end scenario, by building Conway’s Game of Life. The video covers the following specific topics:
- Selecting the Claude Sonnet 3.5 model in the GitHub Copilot Chat model picker in Visual Studio Code
- Writing specific, clear prompts: requesting a single-file implementation with a responsive layout and configurable cell size
- Tips on effective prompt engineering: keeping prompts simple and specific to reduce ambiguous output
- Reviewing generated code before inserting it, then customising the colour scheme to match the GitHub contribution graph
- Using the “Apply in Editor” button with speculative decoding to apply targeted diffs across an existing file
- Refactoring from a single HTML/CSS/JS file to separate files using Copilot Edits for multi-file changes
- Reviewing multi-file diffs in the Copilot Edits view and accepting changes per file
- Using drag-and-drop to add files as context to Copilot Chat and Copilot Edits sessions
- Improving readability with Copilot Edits: grouping variables, adding a new class, and nesting methods
- Using a Copilot instructions file to enforce team coding standards (HTML5 meta tags, JSDoc comments) in subsequent edits
- Inline chat slash commands:
/docto generate documentation for a function and/explainto learn about an unfamiliar concept (torus topology) - Using Copilot Extensions to integrate Copilot’s natural language interface with external tools and services
- Generating a project README with Copilot Edits, summarising the app, implementation, and contribution guidelines
- Writing a GitHub Actions deployment workflow to publish the static site to GitHub Pages
- Using Copilot to suggest a commit message, committing, pushing, and verifying the live GitHub Pages deployment
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